British stocks up 0.28 pct Wednesday

LONDON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- British stocks rose on Wednesday, with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index up by 0.28 percent, or 20.53 points, to close at 7,348.03 points.

Whitbread, a multinational hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company, soared by 7.55 percent, the top gainer of the blue chips. British American Tobacco and Reckitt Benckiser Group increased by 3.67 percent and 2.06 percent, respectively.

The major British property development and investment company Hammerson was the worst performer in the blue chips, with its shares losing 6.17 percent. Micro Focus International, a British software and information technology business, dropped 1.86 percent. Worldpay Group, a payment processing company, dropped 1.76 percent. Enditem